Contemporary fun

Music and performance art highlight ArtSpree 2008

The peaceful, picturesque grounds of the Contemporary Museum, decorated with large sculptures set amid huge green trees and hills of lush grass, fills with the noisy buzz of large crowds each year during its ArtSpree community event.

ArtSpree 2008

Place: The Contemporary Museum, 2411 Makiki Heights Drive

Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

Admission: Free

Call: 526-1322 or visit tcmhi.org

Note: Free public parking and drop-off is permitted at Punahou School, where shuttles will provide service to and from the museum all day.

Families from all over the island clamor to the Makiki Heights art museum for a chance to experience and create art in the great -- if cultivated -- outdoors, while music and gorgeously clad performance artists add another dimension of color to the day.

In fact, says performance coordinator See Ellauri, the beauty at ArtSpree is so captivating, "it's like a dream, it's like a wonderland." Ellauri, who comes to the museum courtesy of Ong King Arts Center, says he's lined up "people who have strong visuals in their work, who like to play and have fun.

"They'll put it out there for the kids, and they'll bring that out (in audiences)."

Giinko dancers will make entrance and exit processions on stilts in flowing black-and-white costumes, Ellauri says.

"The Contemporary Museum has a nice big space, so the dancers will cover the area. Each performer will go out into the audience and hold that space visually on their own," he says.

Samadhi aerialists, a big hit last year, will hang from the museum's tall trees to create "a beautiful spectacle." Loco Moco, a juggling, unicycling, stilt-walking clown, will also appear, and students from Youth Speaks Hawaii will perform their poetry.

COURTESY SERGIO GOES
ArtSpree will feature arts for the kids.

Ellauri, who also serves as master of ceremonies and storyteller, says having the young poets at ArtSpree is important for both the kids in the audience and the performers themselves.

"It's important to provide an aspect to the day of people speaking from their heart," he says. "It's beautiful to have young people performing outdoors, on the field, for families."

ArtSpree is the museum's annual effort to reach out to the community, something that is near and dear to Ellauri's heart. As a representative for Ong King, which is driven by a mission statement to create a sustainable art community, Ellauri sees high value in the event.

"ArtSpree is accessible to all ages. It reaches out on different levels: through art, music, performance, crafts that visitors can make," he says. "There aren't any Ferris wheels or carnival rides. It's simply made up of artists who are expressing and creating in the community. It has an aesthetic appeal."